{"id":26,"date":"2015-01-28T21:03:04","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T21:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/abealfreader3\/?post_type=chapter&p=26"},"modified":"2022-07-22T20:05:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T20:05:26","slug":"bold-and-bright-sook-yin-lee","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/abealfreader3\/chapter\/bold-and-bright-sook-yin-lee\/","title":{"raw":"Bold and Bright: Sook-Yin Lee","rendered":"Bold and Bright: Sook-Yin Lee"},"content":{"raw":"

Click play on the following audio player to listen along as you read this section.<\/p>\r\nhttps:\/\/media.bccampus.ca\/id\/0_q04gbwym?width=608&height=70&playerId=23449753\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_80\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]\".\"<\/a> Sook-Yin Lee[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSook-Yin Lee has been called \"a cultural Jill of all trades.\" This means she can do a little bit of everything. She's a musician, actor, writer, filmmaker, and broadcaster. Since she was a child, she has loved putting on a show. At the heart of a good show is a good story. She says stories are how she makes sense of a world that\u2019s both strange<\/span> and wonderful<\/span>.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSook-Yin grew up in North Vancouver. Her parents moved to British Columbia from China. They were strict<\/span> and her mom used to hit her. So Sook-Yin ran away when she was 15. Her sister Dede went, too. Together, they lived on the streets. Dede fell in with a violent<\/span> gang and died very young.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_220\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"400\"]\".\"<\/a> The band Bob's Your Uncle[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSook-Yin turned to the arts for survival. In the late 1980s, she became the lead singer of a Vancouver-based punk band called Bob's Your Uncle. The owner of MuchMusic heard about her and asked her to try out for a job as a VJ. A VJ is like a DJ for music videos. She landed this dream job. She quickly became known for being smart, funny, and fearless<\/span><\/strong>. In 1995, gay people won some basic human rights. Sook-Yin celebrated by kissing another woman on air. And on her last day at MuchMusic, she said goodbye by mooning the camera.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_222\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"400\"]\".\"<\/a> CBC studio in Vancouver[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn 2002, she moved to CBC Radio as host of a show called Definitely Not the Opera<\/em>. The show is about Canadian pop culture. It has also become a place for Canadians to share stories about the sad, joyful<\/span><\/strong>, and embarrassing<\/span> moments of modern<\/span> life. What makes Sook-Yin different is that she doesn\u2019t hold back. She shares her stories on the air, too.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_300\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]\"poster<\/a> The movie\u00a0\"Shortbus\"[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn 2006, CBC threatened to fire Sook-Yin for starring in a racy<\/span> film called Shortbus<\/em>. After the film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, people stood and clapped for 20 minutes. This act sent a loud message about letting artists express themselves. So CBC didn\u2019t fire her after all.\r\n\r\nSince then, Sook-Yin has continued to live by her motto<\/span>: be bold<\/span>, shine bright. She shows us how storytelling and the arts can help us find who we are, connect with others, and make it through whatever life has in store for us.\r\n

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Word Patterns<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nThe suffix -less<\/strong>\u00a0means \"without.\"\r\n\r\nIn this story, for example,\u00a0fearless<\/strong>\u00a0means without fear.\u00a0Other examples (not in this story) include:\r\n